2v2v2 Team Co-Op Game to start the PNW Weekend Marathon! (October 14th, 2022)

Posted on October 22, 2022October 23, 2022 by Ben

2v2v2 Team Co-Op Game

10/14/2022

This is how it began!! Xerecs (Billy), L0rdgingerbread (Spencer), and Gazerbeam543 (Peter) all flew up from Los Angeles to join the PNW Pirates (generally myself, Witch (Dan), and Kyky (Kyle) along with John and Cutty) for an epic Pirates CSG Weekend Marathon! I would call it the Pirates playing event of the year for 2022 so far, and never before have I heard of multiple players flying from one location to another pretty much exclusively to play this great game. Huge thanks to everyone who came out, and especially the LA crew who had to spend a lot more and make detailed plans to make it all work. We played most of the games at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue.

We planned everything out in great detail through our messenger group (ask me to add you if you’re interested in playing anywhere near Seattle!), from build totals to game ideas to house rules and a game schedule based on timing and availability. This is the house rule document we use for coordination, with these additional house rules specifically for this weekend marathon where we had about 6 people voting on house rules instead of the usual 3-4.

-Lord Mycron legal, but has Limit and Ransom in addition to his regular abilities.
-Custom game pieces are allowed if all players agree to their legality.
-Three islands placed per player.
-Each player can place 3 pieces of terrain during setup (in the same order as islands, per usual), with a maximum of 1 massive terrain and 1 medium terrain per player. (Picture – Massive=7 in top 2 rows; Medium=7 in bottom row)
-Storm terrain and mysterious islands legal for the 80 point game.
-The last player in the turn order chooses their home island location first, followed by the second to last player until the first player chooses their home island last.
-Each player must contribute an equal number of coins of any value or type in order to have 4 coins per wild island. (8 coins per player due to 2 wild islands per player)
-Gold bonuses will be applied permanently to the coin in question (ex: a 7 becomes an 8 ). The added value stays with the coin, and the coin can be “used” normally for the purposes of home island raiding, fort building, etc.

Time to get into the actual report! We rolled d6’s to start – whoever got the same result as another would be paired on a team. We didn’t want to do it in advance of the meetup because teams might resemble one 80 point fleet, and because there was already enough pre-game prep that went into each fleet and game planning. The teams were as follows: Witch with L0rdgingerbread, A7XfanBen with Xerecs, Gazerbeam543 with Kyky. Apologies in advance if there is any confusion from the weekend’s reports because I switch between usernames and first names, and if various fleets are incomplete because I can’t recall all the details of who played what.

The fleets, in player order. By some luck miracle the teams were already arranged around the table in the order we wanted so nobody had to move around – Team 1 Player A, then Team 2 Player A, etc, so that there was always two players in between each teammate turn.

Witch (teammate: L0rdgingerbread)
Custom Queen Anne’s Revenge + custom Blackbeard, Lucky the Parrot, helmsman, explorer, oarsman
Devil Ray + helmsman
Princess + The Hag of Tortuga, helmsman, oarsman
UT’s: Cannibals

A7XfanBen (teammate: Xerecs)
Raven’s Neck + Hammersmith, The Hag of Tortuga, Lucky the Parrot, explorer, oarsmen x2
Longshanks + helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x3
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorers x2, oarsmen x2
UT’s: Altar of the Loa, Pandora’s Box, Castaway, Maps of Alexandria, Marksman’s Map, abandoned oarsman, abandoned shipwright, Wine

Gazerbeam543 (teammate: Kyky) Fleet name: Faster Without Cargo
Intrepid + Commodore Matthew Perry, Tribal cheiftain, captain, helmsman
Ébat
HMS Trepassey
French Native Canoes

L0rdgingerbread (teammate: Witch)
HMS Dover + 4 crew
Sea Crane + Zheng Li Kwan
Winds of Vengeance + crew
Dragon

Xerecs (teammate: A7XfanBen)
Neptune’s Hoard + Hammersmith, SM El Fantasma, oarsman
Intermediaro + stinkpot shot

Kyky (teammate: Gazerbeam543)
Revenant + 5 generic crew
Pandora + The Hag of Tortuga, 2 generic crew

Xerecs and I were hyped to finally work together after SOO many games played, with nearly 100 contests on VASSAL and various games this year in LA. It remained to be seen if various fleets had any synergies, but that was part of the fun we had to figure out as we went along.

Here is the ocean! For home islands, Billy and Spencer are at the upper left. The middle from left to right is Kyle, Peter and me. Dan is at the upper right.

Witch took the first actions of the epic weekend and we were off!

And immediately UT’s deal crushing blows! Pandora’s Box and Plague nearly ruin the Raven’s Neck for good, but I yanked in an Altar of the Loa to control Gazerbeam’s fleet!! O_O The Trepassey lost her mast to a whirlpool, the canoes were flung towards the doom of a massive sargasso sea which promised to never let them escape, and the Intrepid lost most of her masts after being flung through a whirlpool and straight onto a reef. I got lucky on the island in general, finding Turtles as well, right next to my home island. It was a grand display of aggression and gimmick chaos, also serving as a wake up call that it was now game on. XD My strategy was working well, as it had been my intention to use the Box to bring in a second Altar since I couldn’t count on finding the “primary” one with so many wild islands to explore. Luckily I triggered the Box right away and was able to set up the epic combo on turn 1.

We would soon get rid of the extra turtle (coin proxy), but the 10 turtles had very little distance to swim in order to net 10 gold for Xerecs and I. Now the question was: would the public location of the Altar trigger a chain reaction where players might race to it in order to control the turn of the player after them?

On the second round the Bloody Jewel sacrificed her other two spare crew to the Altar, giving me another turn of control over Peter’s fleet. The Intrepid was moved back through a whirlpool towards the Plague-ridden Longshanks, as I hoped to capture the schooner. The Longshanks had captured the Trepassey on my turn, giving the English sloop the Plague. Plague would limit how much I could control the next fleet via the Altar, as I was planning to sac crew from the Longshanks for additional turns of control. Three of the French native canoes were moved into the sargasso sea of doom, meaning they would be tangled and stuck for the rest of the game!

Spencer was snagging some gold in the northwest:

Woelf’s clarification on the spying abilities was a bit shocking to me, as I had always played it as once per round on the controlling player’s turn. Thanks to Witch and others for bringing up the wording, as we would play it correctly the rest of the weekend with spying able to happen on every player’s turn. This makes them even more viable and I could see the 2 point spyers being worth it as a result. There was a funny moment on the first turn where Witch used his Lucky the Parrot to spy one of my crew, which was Lucky the Parrot. “Pieces of Eight!” XD

As the turtles arrive home, the Bloody Jewel looks for gold while the Raven’s Neck is sent through whirlpools to try and dump her Plague in one. Xerecs and Witch have gotten some coins home, while Kyle’s ships head towards Spencer’s gold runners. The Longshanks was sunk near the center, dooming my plan to use the Intrepid and Trepassey as prizes. Gazerbeam is relieved to finally take a turn with his fleet, moving his remaining 2 canoes over a reef in search of gold.

The whited-out coin is a Plague proxy, and you can see what I was dealing with on the Raven’s Neck. If I could eliminate that UT on a “bad” whirlpool roll, I could transfer her coins to the Bloody Jewel without danger (the latter still carrying her valuable helmsman) and avoid the Rats penalty on the regular coins aboard RN. Nemo’s Plans (a gift from Xerecs via Pandora’s Box) was nice to have, though we should have coordinated better on which UT we would each contribute. I was somewhat hell-bent on the Altar to pull off my gimmick strategy lol.

Maps of Alexandria was found, revealing the southeast island (at the bottom right) to be rather valuable at 12 total gold with a Cross of Coronado too.

It also revealed the location of my “original” Altar of the Loa, dormant on an island in the southwest. Xerecs and I were constantly using the spying ability throughout the game and sharing information with each other to game plan, and did consider revealing the Altar location (before the Maps were found) to the team of Gazerbeam/Kyky in case they would be able to use it to control Spencer or Witch’s turn(s). At this point there was a LOT going on, both in terms of team strategy and inter-team politics. So much that I can’t remember half of it haha! Definitely a fun time, and getting a bit tense as the endgame approached….

Kyle’s Revenant back to full strength. Wine could throw a wrench into the plans of any team trying to end the game sooner rather than later…

From the east looking west. Peter’s Intrepid has made the harrowing journey home to repair. Dan and Spencer look like the favorites to win, though Xerecs and I might have enough gold to at least contest it.

The Bloody Jewel got the RN’s coins home after I finally rolled badly enough in a whirlpool to toss Plague overboard. The BJ had also found two other face down coins of note… two abandoned crew. O_O I told Xerecs this, as it meant the BJ could use the Altar for another turn of control over Peter’s fleet. This was a secret worth keeping, as I don’t think others in the game anticipated both of the coins on the BJ not unloaded to home to be essentially crew that I could sac at the Altar. This was another way to gamify the Altar that I had intended during my fleet construction when thinking about UT’s – include at least 2 abandoned crew so if you run out of normal crew, you can find more to keep the mind control going. XD This was also my intent with Castaway (to bring in a recruiter crew who gets flipped for a second crew, then sac both), which backfired when Spencer found it and brought in SM Genny Gallows for +2 gold to some of his coins. XD

Peter was able to get some revenge, with the Intrepid dismasting the Raven’s Neck, but only after missing horribly the turn prior (his luck was horrific in this game, so not a fun start to the weekend. Though being the player to my left was random and not my intent, as I hadn’t thought about who would be a potential “Altar victim” before the game started).

Xerecs’ Neptune’s Hoard (NH) took 2 masts off HMS Dover. SM Fantasma (aboard the NH) has designs on Witch’s HI, which is currently protected by the Devil Ray and Princess but not the dangerous QAR. With the unfortunate constraint of time ticking down toward when the game had to end, I had some ideas for the endgame. However, my worst fears were realized when Kyle sent his Revenant in the direction of the 12 gold in the southeast. I think we had 45 minutes or less left in the game at this point, and I saw building a durable fort on that island as the best play Xerecs and I could make to contest Dan and Spencer’s combined gold total.

The Intrepid sunk the Raven’s Neck, bringing me down to just the Bloody Jewel. She went to the Altar island, but at this point Peter’s fleet was too weak to gain much advantage by controlling it for a turn. We would need other help, so I planned things out with Xerecs, knowing that the gold swing on HMS Dover (2 coins and I think 7 gold) or the NH raiding Dan’s HI would not be as much as a fort control play for the 12 in the southeast. Xerecs made a clutch move by surfacing Intermediaro to blast and pin Dan’s QAR, taking advantage of the Sea Monster-Captain house rule with some equipment while also stealing back a coin the QAR stole from his HI. The squid fought well and eventually the QAR was sunk! This was a big move that helped Xerecs and I, as it took an HI Raider out of the game and meant she also couldn’t interfere with our fort plans. Luckily the Revenant was too slow to dock at the SE island.

To some extent, my “deke” of keeping both abandoned crew face down on the Bloody Jewel paid off. The Revenant came for the BJ, but was only able to dismast her! Then I flipped the abandoned shipwright to put a mast back up. I sacced two crew for a final turn of control over Peter’s fleet, but the Intrepid and Ebat needed extra actions through the whirlpool to do anything about the Revenant, which they didn’t have. The real key was that this BJ distraction allowed Xerecs’ weakened NH (from combat with the Dover) to round earth to the southeast and build The Devil’s Maw on the island with gold from Xerecs’ HI! As part of her explore action, the NH dumped the 3 she had acquired recently into the fort, knowing it would be better protected in the fort. Indeed, the last round was upon us, and even though the NH was dismasted and (I think) sunk, the fort was left intact, meaning all the gold in it would count for Xerecs and I.

Unfortunately the game ended with a time constraint though there was still gold in play/etc. Spencer had also been clutch at the end, picking up a coin near the giant iceberg with the Winds of Vengeance. It was time to count!

Dan and Spencer: 46 gold (6 units in play)
Ben and Billy: 46 gold (2 units in play) (including 22 gold on my HI, 1 on Billy’s HI, 2 on Intermediaro, and I believe 21 in The Devil’s Maw)
Peter and Kyle: 8 gold

O_O Holy cow what a finish!!! O_O Incredibly against all odds the gold scores were a high-scoring TIE at 46, leaving it up to the tiebreaker of most units in play! Dan and Spencer got that one easily and thus are the winners of this Team Co-Op Game!

Truly an unbelievable game. It kills me to write this out because of how many things could have gone just slightly differently to give Xerecs and I the win. XD That said, we played our heart out as a team in the endgame and I think we did things optimally in the final hour of the game. If we had coordinated better and Barbary Banner was placed on the RN instead of Nemo’s Plans, that 5 gold would have been enough. But my Castaway UT gave Spencer Genny Gallows, whose bonuses made enough of a difference for their team to win. I should try to agonize less over what-ifs and care less about winning haha. Unfortunately Peter and Kyle had to play from behind at the outset largely due to the Altar play; “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” as Gore Verbinski said about filming the PotC movies. I will say I’m a bit less likely to use the Altar in future multiplayer games, both because you are limited in who you can control (only the next player in the turn order) and because wrecking Peter’s fleet didn’t do enough to win the game for Xerecs and I. Congrats to all on a game well played and a wild start to the big weekend.

Marysville Library Game – 2×60 on October 2nd, 2022

Posted on October 2, 2022October 2, 2022 by Ben

Marysville Library Game

10/2/2022

I played with a friend at the Marysville Library board game meetup. These are the house rules used for the “PNW Pirates”, though most would not be relevant today as it was my opponent’s second game. She rolled to go first with a Franco-Spanish fleet:
El Toro + captain, helmsman
Catedral del Mar + captain, helmsman
Mercure + captain
La Cazadora + helmsman

I followed with the English:
HMS Sultan + captain, helmsman, chainshot specialist, fire shot, double shot
HMS Ajax + captain, helmsman
HMS Bath + helmsman
HMS Greyhound

4 wild islands with 4 coins apiece, with 3 terrain placed per player.

After the Cazadora explored to take two coins, the Mercure repositioned to shoot a mast off the Sultan while grabbing a third coin from the island. El Toro has arrived through the whirlpool to block HMS Bath.

I decided I wanted to play it risky and try to blast El Toro out of the game in one fell swoop. However, true to form as could be, my cannon luck was abysmal. Broadsides Attack missed. The Sultan set the Mercure alight and dismasted her with the ram roll, but double shot backfired, leaving the schooner with just one mast standing. I decided to blast away with the Greyhound and Bath as well, but the ships combined to go 0/3 against El Toro, leaving me wide open for a devastating counterattack.

El Toro dismasted the Ajax, allowing the Bath to flee into fog and the Greyhound to escape to my HI. With the Mercure burning to the waterline, her gold could not be salvaged by the Sultan, who sailed home hoping to evade the dangerous crab nearby. The Catedral is gathering some gold for the Franco-Spanish.

A bit later and El Toro has explored a fresh island, allowing the Cazadora to grab gold from it more quickly. The crab’s positioning led me to scramble for the island the Greyhound was originally aiming for, with the goal of protecting them with the repaired Sultan on the return trip if necessary.

The luck shifted a bit during this middle phase of the game, with the Toro’s captain directing a 1/4 shooting performance against the Bath, leaving her to return home safely with 3 coins on my next turn. The Sultan redocked and shot some crab claws into the sea, setting the crab aflame! I think this is the first time I’ve seen a crab on fire!

As the Spanish continued to pile up gold, El Toro would not go down quietly. It extinguished its flaming appendage only to be set aflame once more!

Ugh! El Toro puts the fire out again! The crab’s giant claw dismasts HMS Greyhound with a ram, frustrating my endgame plans.

Normally I would have built a fort on the island the Greyhound explored (in order to extend the game for HMS Bath to do enough home island raids), but I didn’t want to suddenly introduce a new mechanic that would have been an unfair advantage since I hadn’t told my friend about it. Instead my plan was to load coins and camp in fog to extend the game, allowing HMS Bath to steal more gold and turn the tide of the gold race! By now the Catedral had lost her helmsman to the whirlpool, meaning that both of my movable ships had a speed advantage over her.

This is where we ran into the time constraint of the library closing – the game took about 2 hours, longer than expected as usual. The Bath was able to dock home a stolen coin, but soon afterwards my bad luck struck again. HMS Sultan came out of the fog bank to shoot at the Cazadora, but rolled 3 1’s to set herself alight!! Crazy enough, on the next turn I went to dock her home and rolled a 2, meaning the fire spread and she was derelict! The game was over.

Franco-Spanish: 20 gold
English: 13

This was a solid game that turned out closer than I had thought. The Bath had stolen a 2, so it would have been 22-11 with no HI raiding. HMS Sultan burned to the waterline with 5 gold aboard. The game was affected by a few asterisks, such as El Toro not rolling for whirlpool damage early in the game, and the very rushed endgame. It was still a fun game though, and a good one for my opponent to learn about how the endgame rules can be manipulated for maximum benefit. (she did start thinking about sabotaging her own ships to end it faster with the gold lead, but didn’t need to as I basically played myself out of it with the Sultan burning herself to a crisp…)

Lake Union Park Seattle – Debut of Epic Scale Pirates in Washington! (September 24th, 2022)

Posted on September 25, 2022September 25, 2022 by Ben

Lake Union Park Seattle – Debut of Epic Scale Pirates in Washington!

9/24/2022

I met up with Kyle at Lake Union Park in Seattle for the debut of PDXYAR’s Epic Scale supersized version of the game! We had a 60 point game using our house rules. We did a draft to make our fleets. I rolled to go first with the following:

Revenant + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, oarsman
HMS Interceptor + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Grinder + captain, helmsman

Kyle’s fleet:
Enterprise + captain, oarsman
Muninn + captain, helmsman
HMS Sea Phoenix + helmsman
Le Coeur du Lion

We had a number of passerby check out the game, so we explained the basics of the game in between actions. I was happy to give out some OE packs and my contact cards.

My ships sailed out, looking for nearby gold and anticipating whirlpool usage if I would need to get more. We used some spare bags of the explored island skull tokens to weigh coins down so they wouldn’t blow away. 🙂

It was the perfect weather and setting for a game!

HMS Interceptor about to snag some coins:

Kyle had great luck and timing with the Enterprise’s EA – soon after this it would trigger to allow the Enterprise to dock at and explore a wild island in the same turn.

The Grinder and Revenant teamed up to load the 3 coins at their island worth value – there was also a 0 there.

At last some conflict was upon us! The Interceptor blazed ahead to rake the Enterprise, but only went 1 for 4!

After the Enterprise dismasted her, the Interceptor revealed her oarsman to row S+S towards the reef.

I wasn’t convinced I needed the Interceptor to win, as I had seen 16 gold between the two wild islands I had explored.

This was indeed the case, and I had won by the standard rules by a score of 16-14. There were two 0’s on the islands Kyle had explored. Since our PNW games are normally played under the multiplayer rules where the game only ends when all available gold has been unloaded to home islands or only one player can give future move actions, we decided to keep going a bit between the coins in play and HMS Sea Phoenix being a home island raider that could potentially turn the tide in Kyle’s favor. Plus, we hadn’t seen much combat or excitement, so it was worth playing out a bit.

I was just going to camp at home to protect my gold, so Kyle took lots of “simulated” turns in a row to group his entire fleet near my HI.

Since I had already won by the standard rules I wasn’t interested in a drawn-out maneuvering chess match, so the Grinder took the opportunity to speed out and land a hit on the Sea Phoenix. I figured I should go big or go home, so the Revenant sailed out of her comfy berth and got into the action as well, sending splinters flying across the decks of the Enterprise and Coeur!

Banana for scale!

When the dust settled, the Enterprise, Grinder and Coeur lay mastless. The Revenant was able to survive some shots from the Muninn, essentially ending the game shortly afterwards by dismasting the Sea Phoenix!

Ben: 16 gold
Kyle: 14

In the end I simply got lucky with the treasure distribution, as 16 of the 30 gold was on the two wild islands closest to my home island. Ironically I contributed a single 0 and found it, while Kyle contributed two 0’s and found both of them.

It was a great start to playing epic scale Pirates in Washington! I highly recommend Lake Union Park in Seattle if you make it up here, and let us know if you’re coming so we can play at a park together! 😀 The “Queen Anne’s Revenge” is behind us. 🙂

Circle of Blood | A7XfanBen vs. Captain Randy | Las Vegas | September 5th, 2022

Posted on September 10, 2022September 10, 2022 by Ben

Circle of Blood

9/5/2022

Circle of Blood! This scenario from Riz is one I’ve played a few times before, and this time it would be in Las Vegas against my friend Captain Randy. We also used these house rules, and all game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet. Randy rolled to go first with his Pirate fleet led by the Zeus.

I went with an evil themed fleet full of chaos:
Divine Dragon + OE Davy Jones, captain, helmsman, Sir Edmund, oarsman
Cassandra + RotF Crimson Angel, Grim the Savage, helmsman
Locker + tribal chieftain, helmsman
Cursed native canoes
Banshee’s Cry + Jonah, Calypso, explorer
Coeur du Lion + Desailly, Auraa

The mega iceberg was a gift from Captain Redgoat while I was in Portland. The sea monsters were picked at random out of Randy’s tray with our eyes closed, while the forts were neutral with 8 3L cannons each. With a whopping 60 coins in play, it promised to be a doozy!

There is also some raw video footage of the game! (it does contain some spoilers for later in the report)

A dramatic first turn! Randy settles a great turtle as his home island, with his other ships docking elsewhere. I redock the 3 canoes remaining from the Zeus assault, flinging coins towards the Divine Dragon, who uses her second action to explore the island and claim the gold as mine! I somehow roll a 6 with the Lost UT, yanking in a bunch of terrain to blanket the map with trade currents and strategically placed fog banks to help me get away with home island raids. Which was the next step! The Cassandra started the game right next to what would become Randy’s HI, flipping Grim the Savage on the first turn to home island hoard immediately!! O_O My early game luck was so dominant that it looked like it should be an easy win for me. However, we were in for quite a long game….

Although my Banshee’s Cry and Calypso were eliminated by Gog-Clocthoth due to the Bad Maps UT, I put the Coeur (with L-mover Desailly on board) into a fog bank so she was safe from the Zeus. Then I used the great turtles as a suction/vacuum effect, saccing move actions from the submerged Locker and fogged out canoe to suck both a wild island and Randy’s home island toward my own home island!! This would make home island raids in the future even easier, with the goal of having the Cassandra able to raid Randy’s HI for 3 coins and then deposit them on the next turn. For now the Cassandra hid in fog on her route to my HI, which was quite effective since she could stay safe while at sea in between robberies.

Both flagships had All-Powerful, which would prove to be quite the matchup throughout the night (and early morning…). Emperor Blackheart on the Zeus vs. Davy Jones on the Divine Dragon. Randy’s fort-immune Windjammer plinks away at an English NPC fort in the northeast quadrant, while the DD round earths to blast masts off the Akua Lapu. The Cassandra docks home a bunch of Randy’s initial gold from his HI, and Randy’s HI is looking dangerously close to my own.

At the top right, Emperor Blackheart thinking about round earthing the Zeus back to Randy’s HI:

The creatures moved around haphazardly throughout, but other than Gog-Clocthoth sinking the Banshee’s Cry, none of them really affected the game much.

In a shock to me, the Zeus leaves herself somewhat open to attack, with Davy Jones taking advantage in a hit-and-run where the Divine Dragon shoots 3/4 before using the extra action to return home. I could have gone for the dismasting but I don’t trust my cannon luck, which would have had to be above average to win an all-out slugfest. At the top of the picture, the submerged Locker rams a mast off the Akua Lapu, leaving her with just one remaining.

A few big plays were made before showing this next picture! Randy sacrificed a move action to move his home island within docking range of the Coral, who unloaded gold in preparation for his next play. Randy built The Devil’s Maw at the island the Akua Lapu was docked at, mostly to siphon gold off his home island knowing it would be safer in the fort from Grim the Savage. However, I had a play of my own to make, using a 6 from Davy Jones to reef the Zeus!!! This left her mastless, but Randy was able to row her home. Knowing she would be repairing two masts per turn and that I would inevitably get pinned if I rammed her at all afterwards, the Divine Dragon took the opportunity to strike. With no masts on the Zeus, the DD had a boarding guarantee (my lowest roll being 7 against Randy’s highest of 6) and no way to get pinned even after Randy started repairing on his turn. So the DD used her two actions to ram and board twice, eliminating the Zeus’ explorer and oarsman and leaving her with just Emperor Blackheart and F&S Hammersmith (for captain+helmsman). Capturing the Zeus was definitely a goal of mine, especially seeing her so vulnerable. By this point in the game Randy had found a second Eye of Insanity UT (the first was eliminated super early by the Pirata Codex), which allowed a crew on his Neptune’s Hoard to copy any Cursed crew in play, which inevitably became Davy Jones and All-Powerful every turn. So in essence, I was now at an “All-Powerful deficit” at a 1-2 ratio. However, if I could capture the Emperor, I would be up 2-1 in the arms race. XD

The Locker turns her attention to the Windjammer. The flagship junks have a boarding duel with pirate casualties.

Randy was using the Neptune’s Hoard to ferry a ton of gold into The Devil’s Maw fort, as I had cleaned out his HI and made it nearly pointless to bring gold back to it. The great turtle I had moved towards my HI earlier in the game was moved by Randy towards his fort. The Zeus was repairing quickly, but her absence from combat allowed the Divine Dragon to easily capture the Windjammer (only after the Windjammer had blasted the final flag off the English NPC fort, and therefore a blow to Randy’s morale as it seemed like the long attack on the fort was all for naught). I was seeing my path to victory: if I could just destroy The Devil’s Maw right before eliminating Randy from play, I would win easily. Knowing this (and being really tired lol), there was no point in going for the rest of the gold on wild islands or attacking the NPC forts needed to get it. All I cared about was wiping the fort off the map and then triggering an endgame condition immediately afterwards, even if it meant suiciding my own ships which would be incredibly easy between all the hazards in play (iceberg, reefs, forts and monsters that automatically shoot at targets in range).

However, destroying the fort wouldn’t be so easy! Randy dealt a huge delay to that goal of mine when he got a 6 with All-Powerful, reefing the Divine Dragon! With the worst possible roll of 1 she lost 5 of her 6 masts! Like the Zeus she returned home to repair, and I was careful to dock at a location where one S+S+S move action would not be in range of any reefs.

Randy’s mid-game success continues, with another All-Powerful 6 used to reef the Cassandra where she lost all but 1 mast!! O_O She was then captured by the Zeus! The Akua Lapu hits the abandoned fort one final time, destroying it and opening its gold up for exploration and claiming. Randy seemed intent on putting as much gold in The Devil’s Maw as possible, which slightly amused me since I didn’t think it would help him much (in hindsight it makes sense though to make sure there was more in the fort than on my HI).

Losing the Cassandra was a big blow to my morale (if Randy could repair her and use her against me to raid my HI, I might lose big in a huge blowout), but I recovered quickly with a clutch turn. A lucky 5 from Davy Jones was intriguing at first, and turned into one of the biggest rolls of the game. I surfaced the Locker, ramming twice to dismast the Zeus! With no oarsman left she was finally ripe for capture!! The Divine Dragon swooped in and snagged her, netting me a second source of All-Powerful and making it extremely difficult for Randy to win any future battles on the sea.

The Locker dived below and rammed the Cassandra derelict, as I wanted to recapture her. I rolled a 6 with All-Powerful, and got overzealous. I didn’t realize how quickly Randy could end the game by suiciding, and forced the Neptune’s Hoard towards an NPC fort with the intent of weakening the ship. It did take 3 masts off (would have been 4 without the Cross of Coronado triggering), but I quickly realized I had been too hasty, since Randy clearly had more gold in his fort than I had on my HI. He had no incentive to continue the game and would be able to suicide before I could destroy The Devil’s Maw. This made my capture of the Zeus feel slightly in vain since I probably wouldn’t even have time to repair her.

Captain Randy’s gold mountain:

Suddenly Randy only has 2 masts standing, with self-sabotage options aplenty and every reason to do so.

Now it was a race against time. What would happen first – Randy ending the game by eliminating his own fleet from being able to get future move actions, or me securing a gold advantage by destroying The Devil’s Maw and making all of its gold not count for anyone?

The Divine Dragon dropped her towline on the Zeus, sprinting south to round earth for a fort assault. The Locker headed there as well for any firepower support she could provide. Randy crashed the Neptune’s Hoard into the megaberg, but Desailly L-moved her away from it (which in hindsight didn’t help much). I believe a 6 from All-Powerful let me move the Akua Lapu into the fog bank west of the fort, making it harder for the AL to drive onto the reef on the east side of the fort.

Randy reefed the Akua Lapu but rolled too high! The DD swooped in and started blasting the fort, with the Locker surfacing to assist.

But in the end the Pirates hadn’t taken everything into their calculations. Although Randy was able to successfully turn the Akua Lapu into a shipwreck on his next turn, he still had an oarsman left in play on the Neptune’s Hoard, who was fully capable of rowing at S+S with future move actions. Randy contended that using the Eye of Insanity with the NH’s oarsman to copy Davy Jones’ All-Powerful meant that the Oarsman ability was not technically present on the NH. In a huge rules question that would basically determine the game’s outcome, Woelf said that the Eye of Insanity cannot trigger the “no future move actions” endgame rule. With that drama hanging in the balance (I was convinced I was right, and insisted the game wasn’t over), I took my next turn, destroyed the fort and sank the Neptune’s Hoard to end the game at last!!

Ben: 29 gold
Randy: 0

What a finish! This certainly felt like the closest finish of any of the 7 games I played with Captain Randy on my Vegas trip, and easily could have gone a lot worse for me. If Randy had been able to wreck both of his ships before the fort was destroyed, he would have won 62-29! (as there was 62 gold in The Devil’s Maw)

This game was characterized by HUGE momentum swings. I looked unstoppable after the first round or two, with Randy in complete despair as a long week of pirating came to a crushing head. However, my mid-game was an absolute disaster, as Randy accumulated a ton of gold, worked around his horrific HI situation (I basically stole his HI), nearly wrecked the Divine Dragon and captured the Cassandra. In the end though, my penchant of often having a strong endgame won me the day. We both had a lot of lows in this game, with a few massive highs as well. We were tired and the game probably ended around 1:30am on Tuesday morning, with me having to get up at 5am for a flight that same day. I think fatigue led to the gaffes on both sides. However, even if it was a really brutal game to play, it’s always much more satisfying to play it out and have a memorable outcome.

With that, I ended my 2022 Las Vegas trip with a 5-2 record, far better than I could have expected going into it (including a trio of 3 player games). Here’s to hopefully next year!!

120 Point Game with 3 Players in Las Vegas! (September 5th, 2022)

Posted on September 9, 2022September 9, 2022 by Ben

120 Point Game

A7XfanBen vs. Captain Randy vs. Kogz03

9/5/2022

This was a 120 Point Game with 3 different players from the Pirates CSG community! Captain Randy ran a mostly Cursed fleet, while Kogz03 (of the discord server) ran a Pirate fleet. Labor Day was the “big Pirates day” of my 2022 Vegas trip, with both triple digit build total games happening on Monday! These are the house rules we used, with all game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet. Randy went first, followed by myself and kogz03.

Randy is in the south, myself in the southwest, and kogz03 in the north. Randy was wary of my Mysterious Island plans and chose one of them as his home island to take it out of play. My initial plan was to use an MI’s “negative” ability to fling treasure closer to home, where some of the canoes could pick up the excess. My canoes started in the northwest while Randy placed his French RtSS canoes in the east.

Randy’s fleet included a loaded Guichuan with some international crew, Grinder + helmsman, Coeur du Lion + Princess Auraa and Deleflote, Sea Monkey + explorer, Death’s Anchor, Sea Duck + explorer, and Jolly Mon + The Hag of Tortuga.

Here is the fleet I used:
Zhanfu + captain, helmsman, oarsman, Soul Mark (this Zhanfu is a wood paste model from Cloud of Craft Gaming)
Frontier + tribal chieftain (swapped for Yeshaji Angria on turn 1), canceller DNT, helmsman, oarsman
Star of Siam + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
10 American native canoes
USS Vermont + Calypso, Captain Charles Richard, tribal chieftain
Patagonia + Robinson, Lord Mycron, Bratley
UT’s: Nemo’s Charts, Protection from Davy Jones, Trees, Neptune’s Figurehead

Kogz03’s fleet:
Black Pearl + Calico Cat, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Revenant + Sean “Cannonball” Gallows, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Harbinger + Crimson Angel, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Raven’s Neck + Norrington, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Raven + explorer
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorer
Banshee’s Cry + explorer
Jolly Mon + The Hag of Tortuga

Two thirds into the first round and both 10 masters have moved into the safety of fog. Calypso fails her first roll which foils my early plans a bit.

The Frontier is given a second action via Mycron and explores the great turtle out from under Randy’s French canoes.

A sharpie-lined Black Pearl is even more formidable than usual:

At the upper left, the Sea Monkey and Death’s Anchor are being attacked by the Zhanfu after taking out some American canoes. The Star of Siam has emerged from fog to explore a wild island. The Frontier follows French canoes south while the Pirate fleet splits up.

Randy and I were aware of our playing status/rivalry throughout the game, but kogz03 was a new opponent for both of us and probably the most poised to create chaos in multiple areas of the board. In a big blow to Randy’s gold game, the Grinder was sunk by a dual attack from the Black Pearl and Revenant! The Harbinger eliminated 3 of the 4 canoes in my “canoe screen”, but the Raven’s Neck was abysmal against the Star of Siam, barely removing a single mast.

The native canoe at the bottom right has loaded two 2’s, Nemo’s Charts, and Neptune’s Trident. Not far away, Randy’s Guichuan attacks! She sinks the Star of Siam and blasts two masts off the Raven’s Neck.

After sustaining 4 hits of damage in her battle against The Cursed, the Zhanfu is victorious in sinking the Death’s Anchor flotilla and captures the Sea Monkey as a prize. The gold-laden canoe has her 2’s yanked off by nearby support canoes, who use their ability to divvy up the treasure and duck into the big fog bank nearby. This is because the other canoe is preparing to give its UT’s to the Zhanfu…. At the bottom right, the Frontier and Randy’s French canoes have emptied Mysterious Island #12 in the southeast.

1-2: Move all treasure coins from this island to any other wild island.
3-4: No effect.
5-6: When this ship explores this island, replace one treasure coin with a unique treasure from your collection.

The Black Pearl continues south and sinks the Sea Duck:

The Guichuan redocked and sank the Raven’s Neck. It was pretty obvious that Randy was trying to keep the Guichuan docked as often as possible, which made it even more obvious that SS Bianco’s Haulers were probably on the ship. The surprise for me was when Randy revealed F&S Lenoir to also be aboard, which he revealed to cancel the RN’s captain when kogz03 went to shoot the Guichuan.

I had a good idea the Trees UT was in the northeast, and transfer Yeshaji Angria to the Zhanfu because I anticipate the Frontier needing to dock at home sometime, likely upon towing the Sea Monkey home for repairs. However, the Frontier’s free hoist explore does net her the Nemo’s Charts UT, as she is the ship most likely to “farm” the mysterious island if needed. Plans are set in motion.

After another round, ships are scattered around the map. In the north, the return of the Raven and Banshee’s Cry to kogz03’s HI has put him in the lead for gold. The Zhanfu and Frontier stay together, towing the Sea Monkey to the northeast via round earth. At the lower left, the Vermont has unloaded Calypso to my HI to avoid triggering her ability. I was worried that creating more whirlpools would give more avenues the other players could use to attack me, especially with a Deleflote-powered Guichuan and a trio of action generators in the Pirate fleet. Randy’s canoes sail home with coins aboard, while the Coeur ducks into the fog bank to avoid any potential ram and board threat from the Revenant. We are getting into the endgame phase, but barely any gold has been unloaded to home islands! I was fully expecting a home island raider crew and Bianco’s Haulers on the Guichuan, which is why I kept the Frontier loaded with gold and my gold canoes in their fog bank. I was hoping to wait for Randy to go after kogz03’s home island, at which point it would buy me time to pull off a grand combo and/or get more gold home in the meantime.

The Frontier explores the northeastern island and the Zhanfu uses a free explore to repair from 6 masts to 10 with the Trees UT! Randy was grumbling, as he now had a healthy 10 master to potentially deal with. Little did he know that there was a far bigger threat… just not one currently in play.

Success! Just as kogz03 was sailing his gunships towards the Zhanfu and Frontier (possibly because by now I had revealed HI Raider Yeshaji Angria in order to spy on some coins to make endgame gold calculations), Captain Randy took the Guichuan over to his HI and raided it with SM El Fantasma! The Black Pearl was sunk in short order! The climax had been set in motion!

Randy’s other two canoes had arrived home with gold, which I knew from the Frontier’s exploratory efforts was likely more than my canoes had aboard. If he was going to nab some of the Pirate coins, I was at least able to spy which ones via Yeshaji. However, I knew my time was running out. Due to the fog bank chain connecting kogz03’s HI to Randy’s HI, the Guichuan could probably remain completely safe in fog if she wanted to as soon as she stopped raiding the Pirate HI. From there she could dock home stolen loot, at which point it would be extremely difficult to permanently steal, between the Guichuan’s protective firepower and ability to re-steal it. Thus, I had to prevent the Guichuan from getting home, preferably sinking her with as much gold as possible aboard to deny it from going to Randy or kogz03. I did use my remaining 4 canoes to move the great turtle towards the Guichuan, but due to the moving restrictions I couldn’t get it into an effective blocking position.

The Zhanfu started towing the Sea Monkey again, as I really thought she might prove useful in the long run if I could ever get her back to my HI for repairs. The Frontier sped to the southeast with Mycron assistance and did something quite rare and unusual… she used the Hoist keyword to unload one of her own coins to the wild island. She docked there and rolled only a 2, which changed to a 4 due to Nemo’s Charts (no effect).

Randy redocked the Guichuan twice more (dismasting the Harbinger in the process) to steal an additional two coins from the Pirate HI, bringing the Guichuan to 4 coins total from her thievery. With a fog exit nearly guaranteed on the next turn for the Guichuan, I knew now was the time to strike. The Frontier redocked at MI #12, finally getting the 5-6 roll needed to bring in a UT from outside the game. I was really happy that I had brought some contingency UT’s in my tin on the trip, as I punched a fresh one out and placed it face down on the Frontier. Mycron then gave the Frontier a second action, with the ship using her hoist to dump another of her own coins on the island before redocking again. On one of the MI rolls I got a little help from Nemo’s Charts, and with the second roll I had secured the ultimate combo of Pirates CSG. I went back into my tin and punched out another secret UT and put it face down on the Frontier. After some brief consideration I knew now was the time to play the combo, immediately.

THE ODIN MISSILE.

I flipped Runes of Odin face up to place an iceberg from outside the game right behind the Guichuan. Next came Runes of Magic, which was used to move the iceberg straight into the hull of the Guichuan. And just like that, the Guichuan, all her defensive crew and all her stolen loot was removed from the game! O_O

Ironically, I had planned to use the same MI for low roll farming in order to fling coins closer to home. That option became pointless once the coins on the island were gone. However, once I found Nemo’s Charts and figured there was no better (or easier) option to eliminating the Guichuan as the main threat to my game, the high roll farming became key. How ironic that in Vegas it was a UT gambling scheme (with a little help from the house 😉 ) that took down a high roller ship. XD

Now I just had to make sure I would end the game with the most gold. kogz03’s stolen loot had just gone to the locker, so I peeked at one of Randy’s coins with Yeshaji. Seeing a 3, I knew he couldn’t have more than me since he only had one other coin. Throughout the game I was trying to track how much gold was available since we started with 45. Before the Odin Missile combo I knew I had 15 between the Frontier and canoes in the fog bank. Essentially “saccing” the lowest value coins on the Frontier (both 2’s) for the Runes brought me to 11, still enough to win since Randy’s second coin couldn’t be more than 7 (so he couldn’t have more than 10 total). Knowing all this I quickly brought the Frontier and my canoes home, ending the game as quickly as possible now that the Guichuan had been eliminated.

The final scores:

Ben: 11 gold
Randy: 7
Kogz03: 5

Quite the finish! The Guichuan only had 6 gold on her when she went down, but that still would have been enough for Randy to win with 13 (or kogz03 to tie me at 11) if she hadn’t gone down. Theoretically I still had the most at 15-13 over Randy if we both had just brought all our gold home, but I have a feeling it would have gotten more complicated than that and Randy would have raided my HI for more (at which point it would have been extremely difficult to re-steal between the Guichuan having Ghost Ship, a canceller, and Bianco’s Haulers). Besides, it was far more fun for me to sacrifice 4 of my gold to deny 6 gold from either of the other players, essentially ending the game in a grand climax of epic combo savagery!! Another 10 master crushed by the power of the Norse gods, called by the Frontier’s crew with Nemo’s help!! O_O

Straits of Chaos – Adventure Book scenario in Las Vegas! (September 4th, 2022)

Posted on September 8, 2022September 8, 2022 by Ben

Straits of Chaos – Adventure Book scenario

9/4/2022

Captain Randy, Maddy and I played a scenario from the Adventure Book – Straits of Chaos. We used a 40 point build total and the other default house rules from my trip to Vegas, with the exception that it was flat earth so ships could actually sail off the map properly per the scenario rules.

Randy went first with a Spanish fleet including their native canoes, while Maddy had a mostly Corsair fleet that also included the Longshanks.

My strategy was to use a “mach speed” HMS Swallow to explore the islands as fast as possible with one ship:
HMS Swallow + LE Griffin, captain, helmsman, explorers x2, oarsman
Patagonia + Robinson, Mycron, Bratley
Mermaid

When the coins used for island markers were revealed, it looked like Randy had a huge advantage. He ended up as the only player on the east side, with the first 3-4 islands perfectly lined up for him.

Randy looked like he would use the Algeciras and canoes to explore a ton of the islands all in one turn, but wasn’t anticipating Griffin making my Swallow even faster than normal. I knew my best chance against the double action San Cristobal would be on the first round, and had to pounce. Mycron let the ship move S+L+S+S twice (as fast as the Cristobal!), speeding over to get some cannons in range and hit thrice on the Spanish flagship!

The Spanish counterattack is effective overall, but the Swallow has 2 masts standing, which is a decent amount of firepower with a guaranteed second action available.

The English win the important fight, with the Mermaid taking the San Cristobal under tow. I quickly realized that scuttling captured ships would be a great way to take advantage of the “no sinking” rule, as all ships essentially have their own version of Eternal in Straits of Chaos. Because of this I didn’t bother sinking the Rosario, since doing so would just help Captain Randy. The Swallow explored island #1, but Randy had already explored the first 3 islands. Maddy’s fleet was making all speed towards the initial islands in the east, but was definitely in last place.

Even a weakened Swallow was looking like an absolute menace on these waters, now barren of big threats to oppose her.

It was time to get greedy and dominate. I knew I would have time to explore islands as I went along, so acquiring more ships became the priority in the short term, both to eliminate the Swallow’s opposition (the Queen of Sheba did have a captain aboard) and to expand my fleet for exploring options. My fleet got to work crushing the weak ships in the vicinity, dismasting the QoS, Algeciras and one of the Barbary 1 masters. The San Cristobal and Rosario were scuttled.

Even though I had still only explored one island, the game was now mine to lose as the Swallow continued to dominate the ocean. The captured Queen of Sheba rows towards island #2 to explore it for me, while the scuttled Spanish ships repair at island #1.

The oarsman-free galleys really started to expedite my pace of victory as they could row and explore islands immediately after I captured them. The Whisper and Tunis were added to the ever-growing English fleet. The QoS explored island #2, Rosario explored island #3, and Tunis island #4 as I tied Randy for the lead at 4 islands explored each.

The Swallow sent one of Randy’s canoes back to island #4 by sinking it, delaying his progress. The Swallow explored island #5 and the QoS explored island #6, meaning I just had to get all of my many ships off the map. In the meantime the San Cristobal took care of Maddy’s Longshanks, which despite my fears did not have a captain aboard. My ships scrambled for Ocean’s Edge, with Mycron’s Patagonia likely to be one of the last to go after he assisted other ships in speeding away from the scene.

With the other players unable to explore all the islands, I sailed off the map to victory! This was a fun scenario where HMS Swallow decisively defeated the San Cristobal early on, which proved to be all I needed to dominate the ocean thereafter. I don’t recommend galleys in Straits of Chaos, at least not without oarsmen since they are so easy to row around for extra exploring logistics immediately after being captured.

Question of the Day: Have you played any scenarios from the Adventure Book?

Wreck of the Black Galleon scenario – Twice! (September 3rd, 2022)

Posted on September 8, 2022September 8, 2022 by Ben

Wreck of the Black Galleon

9/3/2022

Captain Randy, Maddy and I met up at Davy’s to play an old Wizkids scenario from way back in the day – Wreck of the Black Galleon. We used a 50 point build total and some house rules in addition to those from the scenario. Randy and I actually played the scenario twice, and you’ll soon see why. The scenario is evidently from the Spanish Main days of 2004/early 2005, as each player contributes only 6 coins worth 12 gold (rather than 8 for 15). In addition, it seems that terrain didn’t exist when they wrote the scenario (therefore before Crimson Coast was released!), as it doesn’t specify that the wreck should be on a reef. As a result, we didn’t bother with having ships roll for reef damage when docking at/exploring the wreck.

The galleon itself! Big thanks to Randy for using a broken El Garante to make this epic shipwreck that was perfect for the scenario.

Captain Randy had a bit of a swarm fleet, while Maddy had an imposing mix of Darkhawk II, Angelica, Banshee’s Cry and Dragon.

I on the other hand went with what I like to call “douchebag supreme” (could also be known as “hypertroll” or “metatroll” lol):
Slipstream + F&S Lenoir, Gendarmerie Rene Moreau, helmsman
Coleoptera + Hag of Tortuga, Tia Dalma, helmsman
Mobilis + helmsman
UT’s: Wolves

I went first, with all three submarines diving below the water. Randy’s fleet was going to be in a world of hurt, with his small ships vulnerable to my unrestricted submarine ramming barrage. The Pique was the first casualty, with many more to come.

Randy got to the wreck of the Black Galleon and explored it, finding the tricky Wolves UT among all the other coins he was able to see. This kept all the gold locked up until the Wolves could be eliminated by a musketeer or Marine, and it quickly became evident that I was the only player with such a crew in their fleet. Of course, I had almost no intention whatsoever of actually killing the Wolves, unless it was at the opportune moment when I could guarantee victory. XD By this point my submarines had rammed three of Randy’s other ships derelict, with Moreau being revealed to sink one of the sloops with a 2S Marine shot from underwater (“torpedoes”). Seeing the situation, Maddy turned around the Banshee’s Cry. However, it was too late to save Angelica, whose Sea Dragon keyword was cancelled by Lenoir on the submerged Slipstream. This froze the dragon in place where it wouldn’t be able to move for the rest of the game as I continued to cancel it to lock it in place, a rule I actually learned from one of last year’s games in Las Vegas.

At this point I knew my path to quickest victory was simply to ensure I had the most total units in play, effectively forcing a forfeit by refusing to kill the wolves with Moreau. With three submarines and Moreau, I had 4 total units that would count toward the tiebreaker rules, so I just had to knock the other players down to 3 or less. Randy was already down to 2 units that could be given actions so I focused on Maddy. The Mobilis kept Sea Dragon cancelled until Moreau finished off Angelica with torpedo shots, shooting from underwater while invulnerable. This knocked Maddy down to 3 units in play, at which point we called it because further play would just see me ram-dismast the remaining ships in play and cancel Submarine intermittently to capture enemy ships docked at their home islands that couldn’t be sunk. I had won the game by forcing a treasure stalemate and then picking off the opposition until I was ahead in units in play.

Ben: 4 units in play
Maddy: 3 units
Randy: 2 units

My strategy had worked perfectly, though I would say this is probably the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever done in a game. Once I read the full scenario rules my mind immediately went straight to the douchiest gamification imaginable – lock up all the gold with Wolves since it’s all in one place, then just ram and torpedo the other players out of the game until a sub can load some gold with only 1 enemy mast remaining up, or beat them into submission and win based on units in play as the 0 gold tiebreaker. I did it partly to make an example out of the scenario (granted it was published before Wolves and submarines existed), and to likely ensure a victory on the trip lol. The icing on the cake was that even if either of the other players HAD brought a musketeer or Marine, Tia Dalma on the relatively speedy Coleoptera would likely be at the wreck to cancel it in order to protect the Wolves. XD Each submarine had cancelling for maximum redundancy, making it extremely difficult for a single coin to be loaded from the wreck.

Game 2

The second game was just Randy and I. He used the same fleet while I had a second, more “normal” fleet ready to go:
Joya del Sol + Nemesio Diaz, Fernando Sanchez, Contessa Anita Amore, helmsman
La Monarca + silver explorer, helmsman
San Salvador + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
OE Algeciras
Coins: 6 silver 2’s

Randy went first, which meant he was likely to explore the wreck first and possibly have a big advantage since all the gold was in one place.

That is exactly what happened, with the Pique, Bon Marin and Bloody Jewel loading coins from the wreck of El Garante. The Monarca was able to grab a couple low value coins but Randy had already loaded all the silver. The San Salvador got in range of the Bloody Jewel and shot a mast off.

Randy’s best blocking efforts were not enough to thwart the speedy San Salvador, whose firepot specialist landed a dooming hit on the Bloody Jewel (Nemesio Diaz being flipped to cancel the Jewel’s helmsman helped in the chase). However, the best treasure was still going to end up on Randy’s HI, which would leave things up to Fernando Sanchez and the Joya del Sol to determine how the rest of the game would go.

The San Salvador was dismasted in turn by Randy’s swarmers, but she had done her job well enough. The Lezard rams a mast off El Algeciras at the wreck.

Effectively a ship for ship trade:

The Algeciras unsuccessfully rams the Lezard in return, while the Joya has loaded the final coin in play, fittingly a 0. Any chance of a Spanish victory hinges on my ability to successfully raid Randy’s home island multiple times with Fernando Sanchez, so my strategy is to give the coin to the Monarca (the fastest ship in play, moving 4S per turn and likely able to avoid Randy’s fleet) to keep the game alive so HI raids can occur and start to swing the balance. However, I know it’s an uphill battle unlikely to result in a victory.

I was pleasantly surprised when Randy decided to scuttle the San Salvador, meaning I wouldn’t have to face my own cannons as the Joya set out for loot. I captured the Lezard with the Monarca in the middle, but both of my ships are likely to be too busy running around to tow her and the derelict Algeciras home for repairs.

Randy’s ships were beginning to encroach upon my fleet dominating the shipwreck area, and soon it would be time to split up and move.

As the Monarca sped off to keep her 0 coin safe, the Joya sailed over the Randy’s HI where Fernando Sanchez stole some booty! Randy’s ships returned to the southwest via round earth to stop the thieving Spaniard.

The Monarca crests a wave, ready to escape indefinitely as the game continues:

I believe the Joya redocked to steal a second coin, but then had some masts removed as Randy’s ships converged on the galleon. I had to make a break for home to repair and keep Fernando’s ship alive, but more of the swarm fleet was waiting there to continue the ramming onslaught.

The French were victorious, capturing the Joya and my essential home island raider crew!

Randy had the game in the bag now, just needing to thwart all desperate attempts by the Monarca to recapture Fernando Sanchez, who is now on the Star of Siam.

Randy had various methods of essentially ending the game by killing Fernando Sanchez, but opted to unload him at home where I couldn’t get him. It was a solid game and Captain Randy’s swarm fleet was victorious!

Randy: 19 gold
Ben: 5

Game in Las Vegas Nevada – 2×60 with Points in Play against Captain Randy (September 1st, 2022)

Posted on September 7, 2022September 7, 2022 by Ben

Game in Las Vegas Nevada – Points in Play at 2×60

9/1/2022

This game in Las Vegas Nevada was with Captain Randy! The player with the most total points in play (including gold) would be the winner. We also used a few other house rules such as no ram damage in addition to the house rules from this week of gaming in Vegas. Captain Randy rolled to go first with what I called a “spite fleet”, using various game pieces I don’t yet own. (USS Morning Star and USS Denver, along with the Bonnie Liz which I do have.)

I followed with my favorite faction, the English:
HMS Swallow + RotF TGunn, Mercer, Commander Temple, explorer, oarsmen x2
HMS Rye + explorer, oarsman, towing Gibraltar
HMS Phoenix + Bratley, helmsman, oarsman
UT’s: Missionary, Jail!, Neptune’s Figurehead, Marines

My goal with the UT’s was to take oarsmen off his ships, which would make them easier prizes for Commander Temple. Each player was allowed to place 2 oversized terrain and 3 regular terrain. We each contributed 8 coins worth 15 gold, but gold worth points would be multiplied by 4 so there was an equal amount of gold points and regular points in play (120+120=240 total).

Definitely some monetary value in Randy’s fleet:

I was intrigued by the idea of the Phoenix as a bulky and well-defended gold runner.

What happened next was nothing short of astonishing! The Americans didn’t factor round earth into their maneuvering calculations, with the Morning Star dismasted by the Swallow on turn 1! The Rye explored for England, finding good values.

Commander Temple snatched up the Morning Star and I already had a big advantage.

In a perfect stroke of luck, the Bonnie Liz found the Jail UT which warped all of her crew to Randy’s home island! This left her easy pickings for the Swallow, who sacced to emerge from a whirlpool and dismast her! The Swallow captured her on the next turn, and an English win was looking inevitable.

Just when it looked like it couldn’t get any more ridiculously one-sided….

The repaired Morning Star and Bonnie Liz will now make gold runs for me:

The Swallow and Rye+Gibraltar did their best to partially block some fog exit locations of the Denver, while I continued making gold runs.

The Denver got a good enough fog roll to dock home some gold safely, but soon afterwards the game ended.

The final points in play scores:

Ben: 186 points in play
Randy: 48

One of the most lopsided games I’ve ever seen! The luck and fleet strategy was entirely on my side tonight, which resulted in a quick and decisive English victory. It was almost like karma for intentionally teasing me with game pieces I don’t have yet! XD

Water World Returns – 3×50 in Las Vegas Nevada! (August 31st 2022)

Posted on September 7, 2022September 7, 2022 by Ben

Water World Returns

8/31/2022

The first game of seven on my 2022 Las Vegas trip saw the return of brettb45’s Water World scenario! This is a super fun game idea I pretty much always enjoy playing. We played at McMullan’s Irish Pub, which was very on-theme with nautical things all around us.

Captain Randy used a Spanish fleet with the Principe de Asturias, Joya del Sol and Rosario. Maddy brought a French Mercenary fleet with the Celtic Fury, Libellule and Bon Marin.

This was the Pirate fleet I used:
Red Curse + Hag of Tortuga, Captain Blackheart, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x2
Treasure + F&S Hammersmith, SM Fantasma
Dragon + helmsman, explorer
UT’s: CC Letter of Marque, Marksman’s Map, Wolves, abandoned musketeer, abandoned oarsman

This doc has the house rules we used.

The pub was actually quite dim inside, making it feel kind of like we were playing on a wooden ship with lanterns.

We were off to the races and the Las Vegas Pirates gaming week was underway!

The Spanish lose their main gunship in short order:

Ships got busy exploring, with Captain Randy finding turtles right near his home fort! The Bon Marin finds both Wolves and the abandoned musketeer on the same island, meaning that my UT plan has partially backfired. However, the goal of including Wolves to extend the game (and thus give my HI Raiders more time for thievery) was still working, as it eventually became known that the game couldn’t end under normal Water World conditions of “no more dry ground”. With no player having a musketeer or Marine to eliminate the Wolves, the game would continue until only one player remained. At the bottom you can see another gift from Redgoat, a super useful L/S measuring tool chain made of thin metal tubing.

With no oarsman aboard, the Principe was ripe for capturing by the Red Curse. The Treasure docked at the Spanish home fort and shot off some flags, revealing SM Fantasma to steal a coin to boot! Indeed, the Spanish were under heavy fire, as the Celtic Fury gets in on the action by running over a turtle.

However, the Spanish have their own HI Raider! The Joya del Sol is carrying both Fernando Sanchez and Bianco’s Haulers (who prevent the ship from being shot at while docked), making her a major threat to the nearby Pirate home fort! Any coins the Treasure steals from the Spanish will likely just be stolen back, and the Joya is within one move action of the Pirate/Spanish home forts for quick raids. The Rosario builds a Spanish fort on a wild island, which diverts gold away from Fantasma… but basically ensures that the gold in the fort can only count for Randy if he retains the fort until an endgame condition is reached. (since if the fort is destroyed, all the gold in it and used to pay for it are permanently locked up by the “immortal” Wolves)

Soon all of the wild islands except the “Wolves island” had sunk, leaving the home island raiders to do more work. I was chipping away at the Spanish home fort with the Treasure, but didn’t want to sink it while it still had valuable coins on it. The Celtic Fury has lost masts to the Spanish fort, but the Bon Marin rams the Rosario derelict.

As the Joya goes for another coin while being immune to cannons while docked, the Treasure shields the Red Curse from the Spanish home fort as Randy and I pilfer from each other.

The Pirates struggle to keep up with the Joya’s theft pace, as Hammersmith decides not to dock the Treasure at my home fort. My strategy was shifting – since Randy could just steal back whatever gold I stole and deposited in my home fort, I had to start planning to win the game based on treasure on ships (which counts in 3+ player games). My path to victory was basically to destroy all 3 of the other forts in play while keeping all the gold I could on the Dragon, who would hide out in fog where my gold couldn’t be stolen.

The Joya heads west, opening her up to Pirate cannons as she is finally not docked somewhere. Despite an extra action for the Red Curse, my shooting is abysmal, leaving the Spanish galleon with a mast standing. The captured Principe is finally ready to set sail after repairing.

The Joya fled for the safety of the fog as the French approached my home fort. I was not in a good position in the gold race, with both of the other players likely benefiting hugely from suicide plays. I figured the French would try to grind themselves out on my home fort to eliminate themselves from contention, with a few islands worth of gold in their home fort from early in the game.

At some point in this endgame Randy and I made a deal to keep the game alive so I would have time to destroy the French home fort, sinking all their gold if I could pull it off with my guns-heavy fleet. I decided to go all-in on my strategy of winning by having some coins on the Dragon and just denying the other players’ gold through fort destruction – abandoning my own home fort in the process as the captain-less Celtic Fury approached and got blasted. The Joya del Sol ran over a reef but did not wreck herself.

The Celtic Fury got SAT from Eileen Brigid O’Brien and rammed the Treasure, but was sunk soon afterwards by the Pirates. The Joya goes back to her stealing ways, racking up more gold from my home fort.

At this point I had to keep Randy’s Spanish home fort alive because if I sank it, he would suicide the Joya on a reef to end the game before I could reach his other fort and Maddy’s French home fort. I left it with no flags and headed west, with a plan to destroy the Spanish “Wolves fort” before then moving on to the French home fort. This was because if I destroyed the French home fort first, Randy would again have incentive to wreck the Joya to end the game in his favor, so I had to go after the forts in a specific order to maximize my chances. My gunships headed west, with the intention of grouping together to blast a fort with all three captained ships at the same time.

However, the Spanish thought they had more gold than the French and decided to end the game by suicide with the Joya wrecking herself on a reef anyway! They should have waited for me to eventually destroy the French home fort!

Maddy’s French Mercenaries: 29 gold
Randy’s Spanish: 18
Ben: 0 (my gold was in a fog bank at game’s end)

Quite the game! It was pretty interesting how the abandoned musketeer ended up on the same island as Wolves, essentially meaning the game couldn’t end until two of the three players were eliminated. I was a bit frustrated that I finished with 0 gold despite playing hard and to win, but it was a consequence of the all-or-nothing strategy I felt was necessary for a come-from-behind win. Maddy found really good gold values on islands early in the game, which proved to be enough in the end. The Spanish had a lot of coins, but mostly lower values. In the strange endgame their best play was to suicide immediately after I destroyed the French home fort, which would have been enough to win as the gold in their home fort was more than what I had on my ships that I would have taken out of fog. A fun and interesting return to Water World!

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ELEVEN Player Game in Portland Oregon!! August 27th, 2022

Posted on August 28, 2022August 29, 2022 by Ben

ELEVEN Player Game

Mox Boarding House in Portland Oregon

8/27/2022

With a HUGE amount of help from Redgoat and Witch, I met up with a ton of people at Mox Boarding House in Portland Oregon for a whopping ELEVEN player game of Pirates CSG!!! O_O Witch has a group that plays in Vancouver Washington, with 7 of the players coming from him and his group. Redgoat brought along Sir Steevn Basil Drakestongue, another founding member of PDXYAR. Add in myself and Koltyre of the discord server and we had 11! This completely shattered my previous high, which was 6 players set in 2016 and tied earlier this year in Los Angeles.

House rules:
-No Unique Treasure
-No Forts
-No Cancellers
-No Limit crew
-Ramming only succeeds on a 5 or 6
-Fleets are faction-pure
-Round earth is the default unless otherwise specified. Ships cannot shoot over round earth, they must be on the same side of the map to shoot.
-No minimum distance between islands (understanding that most will still be placed at least 2L apart)
-Terrain can touch islands and other terrain.
-Winners of boarding parties choose whether to eliminate crew or steal treasure, and can choose which treasure to take (loser still chooses which crew is eliminated)
-Whirlpools have negative effects on rolls of 1-3 instead of 4-6.
-Generic crew may use their abilities on ships of any nationality.
-Sea Monsters get the Captain keyword built-in.
-Shipwrights do not take up cargo space.
-Home Island Raiders can look at all treasure on an enemy home island when they dock and choose which treasure(s) to take.
Ban List
All events
Ships: DJC Le Bonaparte
Crew: Lord Mycron

Drakestongue rolled to go first, choosing his home island last. The order of play was as follows clockwise around the table: Drakestongue, Redgoat, Koltyre, A7XfanBen, Witch, English, Barbary Corsairs, Raven’s Neck Pirates, White Rose Pirates, Spanish, Providence Americans.

The “Core Four” community members of myself, Redgoat, Witch and Koltyre made the setup, and as discussed way prior to the game, we would be using only half as many wild islands as players, with only a couple extra coins per island to compensate. This was to keep the game length to a theoretically reasonable limit, and to prevent us from needing a second table for the ocean. 5 wild islands were used with 6 coins on each of them. With so many players and so few gold options, things promised to get ugly and desperate rather quickly.

Who would win this crazy crapshoot for the ages??

This was my fleet. Basic idea was to use the LP’s speed to grab coins early and then use her ability later on to steal some more. Temple would remain facedown on the Oxford until I could steal a ship or two, hopefully increasing the size of my fleet to give me more options in the endgame. Strategizing as much as I normally do felt pointless with the amount of randomness involved, and theoretically each player had just a 9% chance of winning the game when it started. XD
HMS Oxford + Commander Temple, captain, helmsman
HMS Lady Provost + helmsman, explorer, oarsman

Witch was using a modified Carcharodon where it doesn’t have the Massacre ability and costs 8 points as a result. Le Bourbon was a proxy for La Possession.

Home island placement anywhere was allowed, but players ended up with home islands close to their location at the table. On the eastern half are the wild islands of Drakestongue, Redgoat, myself, Witch and Koltyre, while the 6 players Witch brought with him are on the western half with the lighter blue.

Drakestongue takes the first move action and the eleven player game has begun!

Koltyre was using a fleet of American schooners:

With plenty of time in between my turns, it was the perfect opportunity to record some game footage! Here is all of it in one video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELmXhewfaco

Partway through round 1 and most fleets are sticking together:

The Wicked Kareen draws first blood, knocking a mast off HMS Interceptor:

The other English fleet:

USS Mercury gets an EA from Commodore Peregrine Stern to sink the San Cristobal! Redgoat’s 5 masters (Black Swan and Revenant) team up to sink the Marrakesh.

Drakestongue’s Black Arrow has gone through a whirlpool to rejoin his other ships, increasing competition for the gold in the northeast. The Lady Provost and Oxford have loaded 5 of the island’s 6 coins.

But the French are the ones who deal the damage! Witch reveals Capitaine Arazure and Gentil de la Barbinais on La Possession, allowing the 4 master to round earth and slam the English with 4/4 shooting!

I took the Oxford into a nearby fog bank, but the Lady P could not row there fast enough at S+S speed. Drakestongue’s Pirates converged on the island, setting up a potential clash with La Possession.

Redgoat reveals probably the niftiest crew surprise of the game, with the Black Swan’s SM El Fantasma stealing a coin from the Corsair home island! The White Rose is doing some raiding of her own in the southwest corner, but the Raven’s Neck is making her pay for it. Two of Koltyre’s American schooners arrive via round earth in the same area. At the upper right, the San Pedro is under attack by the other American fleet.

The Black Swan loses masts to the Wicked Kareen, but the latter is then captured by Redgoat with some help from Captain Blackheart on the Revenant! The Possession has sunk the Lady Provost and Eagle, and the Flying Dutchman could be next!

The Carolina and Intrepide are getting some gold at the upper left, but both Witch and Koltyre have made it clear the whole island is barely worth anything.

USS Mercury dismasts the San Pedro, eliminating the Spanish from contention!

A look at PDXYAR legend Redgoat’s growing fleet:

HMS Dauntless engages the Revenant near the center. At the upper right, La Possession has crippled the Flying Dutchman.

The Providence has returned home with another haul of 3 coins for the Americans, making them the favorite to win. At some point the Raven’s Neck Pirates revealed that through spying, they learned that the Americans had amassed a total of 18 gold. HMS Interceptor is repairing, the Intrepide brings home gold for the French, and the Flying Dutchman whirled to escape the Possession’s cannonade.

Some time later and things have gotten more interesting. The partially repaired FD is about to grab some of the last gold in play. I was talking some strategy/rules with Redgoat and it looked like he was looking to team up with his old rival/nemesis Drakestongue. If the FD could stay alive with gold on her, it would extend the game and potentially allow Redgoat to raid the American home island for enough gold to win.

The Gruesome has pinned herself on the Providence (docked at her home island), allowing the Americans to finish her.

The Americans are clearly in the lead and thus face some opposition at their home island in the form of the Raven’s Neck, HMS Interceptor, and Wicked Kareen. However, an uncoordinated effort may be in vain. Redgoat repairs his 5 masters but fears he will run out of time to steal gold with El Fantasma. Calico Cat was clutch earlier in the game but now takes a backseat, further delaying Redgoat’s plans. Koltyre’s Freedom and Minuteman have been sunk in the far west.

The Raven’s Neck is dismasted by USS Mercury, but the White Rose lies in wait in the big fog bank southwest of the American HI….

The Black Swan whirled to the southeast to check out what gold Koltyre had left on his home island (he left, taking the Carolina with him). However, the pesky French pounced, causing a surprisingly busy situation in a formerly dormant area of the sea. HMS Oxford is finally repaired to full health after a long journey waiting in fog for carnage to dissipate and then repairing at home.

With Drakestongue’s Black Arrow ramming a mast off the Possession, the unlikely “PDXYAR alliance” is made more obvious as Redgoat turns the Black Swan towards my home island. My desire to not be shut out overcame my desire to see Redgoat win (the latter since I realistically had no chance at this point with just 2 gold), as the Oxford defended English territory and dismasted Redgoat’s favorite ship.

In other big news, the Providence was sunk! The White Rose has emerged from the huge fog bank to steal gold from the American HI! This was the endgame climax we had been building towards. The Corsair player left, making them a non-factor from here on out.

Redgoat was actually eliminated in short order, with the Possession sinking the Black Swan and the Dauntless sinking the Revenant and Wicked Kareen. HMS Interceptor has been sunk as well. The White Rose is redocking to steal more American gold, and the Mercury can only trigger Captain Mysion’s Parley ability rather than damage her!!

With the White Rose continually redocking and the Mercury continuing to try to shoot at her, a “Parley loop” is observed where the White Rose steals a coin and then Parleys it back to the American HI when the Mercury tries to shoot her. Drakestongue brings the Flying Dutchman home via whirlpool, avoiding the Oxford in the process. The Possession is finally spent, with Arazure her final crew left and down to 1 mast after whirling towards home.

Stern failed an EA roll on the Mercury, allowing the White Rose a better chance to escape with 2 or 3 coins intact in her hull. The Mercury hit 2/3, and the White Rose sped back into the huge fog bank. With her home island on the other side of it, it looked as though the Pirates would get away with some valuable loot. On the right, the Oxford has captured the Black Arrow. I was finally able to reveal Commander Temple and warp her home on my next turn, but it wouldn’t matter at all.

The White Rose emerged from the fog bank to dock home her stolen loot to end the ~3.5 hour game! In the end it mattered immensely!!
1. White Rose Pirates: 14 gold
2. Redgoat: 12
3. Raven’s Neck Pirates: 10
4. Providence Americans: 8
5. Corsairs: 7
6. English: 6
7. Witch: 5
8-10. Ben, Drakestongue, Koltyre: 2
11. Spanish: 0

Wow! A close and exciting finish that saw a reversal of fortune! It does look like the HI Raider choosing house rule is overpowered to some extent. Overall it was a fun game and a really cool experience to play with so many people at once! Thanks for reading!